NEWSLETTER #2 November 2012

Mingei Store House is full of wonderful purses, bags, table napkins, runners, scarves, hats and shirts for summer, for Christmas! Mary has been away again, visiting her dyer, weaver friends in the Japan Alps and in coastal villages and has since been busy getting everything in place in the Store House, Bungendore. There are some truly beautiful scarves from a master shibori dyer from Kyoto.

“I look for a Japan that can be hidden in the many folds of its culture and subcultures, hoping that this assists treasures to survive and flourish. I carefully choose each and every piece, be it a small coin purse or bolt of fabric, picturing it 'at home' in the warmth of the Store House.”

Sakiori, the weaving of spent cloth, is captivating me and I have quite a collection in the Store House... as runners, purses, table centres. There is a remarkable energy in these handmade articles made from fibres used by one person after another through decades.